WAIT ... YOU MEAN WEED'S NOT LEGAL YET?

Decriminalization Remains A Pipe Dream In Current Political Climate

It was the subject of international hype a few years ago: the great
liberal northern bastion of Canada was planning to decriminalize
marijuana, snubbing its nose at its neo-conservative southern
neighbour's War on Drugs.

But the Liberal government that introduced the proposed
decriminalization law let it die, and its Conservative successor has
promised not to revive it.

Nonetheless, marijuana advocates can still see the criminal
prohibition of pot being chiseled away through court cases, economic
changes and the simple on-the-ground reality.

"The Conservatives definitely set it back, but there are many things
happening," said Ched Ander, an Edmonton pot activist.

Decriminalization should not be confused with legalization, which
would remove all legal penalties and fines against growing, selling,
possessing and using marijuana.

It also shouldn't be mixed up with the legal use of marijuana for
medical purposes, which the federal government permitted after an
Ontario court decision in 2000.

Health Canada reacted to the ruling with a set of regulations on
consuming medical marijuana, even contracting a supplier to produce
dried pot and seeds in an old Manitoba mineshaft. The most recent
political push to decriminalize pot for general use began in late
2002, when a Senate committee suggested that marijuana was less
harmful than alcohol and should be regulated in a similar way.

A House of Commons committee followed up by suggesting that criminal
charges were too harsh of a penalty for possessing small amounts of
marijuana, and suggested decriminalizing possession of less than 30 grams.

The bill originally tabled in May 2003 under former Liberal Prime
Minister Jean Chretien decreed that possession of less than 15 grams
should be legalized, but that legislation died on the order paper in the House.

A marijuana reform bill was introduced again in February 2004 and
again that November under the minority government of Chretien's
successor, Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin. Martin promised the
law would be a priority but it never got past the committee stage.

"The Government of Canada believes that while cannabis use must be
discouraged, possession of small amounts should not result in a
criminal record," read a news backgrounder on the last Liberal bill.

It called for a $150 fine for adults and a $100 fine for youths
caught with up to 15 grams of marijuana, and a $300 fine for adults
and a $200 fine for youths for possession of one gram or less of
cannabis resin or hashish. The fines would have gone up to $400 for
adults and $250 for youths in possession of these amounts while
operating a vehicle, committing a serious crime or if found in or
near a school.

Possession of between 15 and 30 grams would have either resulted in
fines or six months in jail and/or a fine up to $1 000 for repeat
offenders at the discretion of the police officer and the court.

"These reforms would also increase accountability among offenders,
who would get a ticket instead of a simple warning, as is the case
for about half of the individuals police find in possession of
cannabis," a press release said at the time.

The last Liberal bill proposed to replace the penalty for growing
pot, which is punishable by up to seven-years imprisonment, with a
sliding scale depending on the amount grown.

One to three plants would have resulted in a $500 fine, halved for
youths, while growing four to 25 could have landed growers in jail up
to five years, and more than 50 could have meant 14 years.

John Conroy, an Abbotsford, BC lawyer with the National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Canada, said he didn't support
the Liberal proposal.

"It would have resulted in even more people being charged" for pot
offences, he said.

True decriminalization would mean turning over pot laws to the
provinces, which are responsible for non-criminal statutes like
motor-vehicle regulations, Conroy added.

Ander said the only good aspect of the proposed Liberal law was that
certain people caught with pot would end up with no criminal record.

But he said the law did nothing to deal with the many problems that
have popped up relating to growing and obtaining marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

Many doctors are still hesitant to prescribe pot and insist on
pharmaceutical products, a decision that Ander said treats patients
like guinea pigs instead of letting them use a known treatment.

He spoke of one spina bifida patient who was denied pot to help his
condition in favour of the pharmaceutical oxycodone and then became
addicted to that drug.

Edmontonian activist Ken Ealey said medical growers selling pot for
compassion at a lower price have run afoul of organized crime gangs
selling it for profit, with sometimes-fatal consequences.

Ealey, who found marijuana treated his migraines after trying a
series of pharmaceuticals, called the Liberal law "a cop out."

"It was another cash grab," added Ander, pointing to its series of fines.

He said the Western Canadian underground marijuana industry generates
about $5 billion in revenue, which trickles up to the above-ground
economy, benefiting governments in general.

His views mirror those of the conservative Fraser Institute, which
predicted that legalizing and taxing cannabis would generate $2
billion in revenue for the BC government alone.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives are taking a
law-and-order approach, after being elected on a platform that
includes mandatory minimum prison sentences and large monetary fines
for serious drug offenders, including marijuana.

Nobody from the opposition Liberals responded to Vue's questions on
whether the party's pot position had changed since it was voted out of office.

Karl Belanger, a press secretary for NDP Leader Jack Layton, said his
party does include marijuana decriminalization in its policy book,
but advocates health-based harm-reduction policies.

"This includes accessible treatment ... and a review of the negative
impacts and social and economic costs of prohibitionist policies that
criminalize drug users and exacerbate community impacts," he said.

The NDP point-person for drug policy, Vancouver MP Libby Davies,
plans to introduce a motion in Parliament "to focus national
attention on the need for policy and law reform concerning illegal
drug use," Belanger added.

A subgroup within the party, eNDProhibition, seeks to legalize
marijuana and replace the "'war on drugs' with a non-punitive system
based upon accurate education, reduction of harm, regulated access
and responsible use," said its website.

NORML's Conroy dismisses political promises to decriminalize,
recalling how the Liberals broke past pledges going back to the 1970s
under former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"Politicians only do stuff that gets them re-elected," he said,
fingering all the parties for not reforming the pot laws. "They don't
have the guts to do it."

Conroy doesn't see decriminalization as being an issue in any
upcoming national election as "most people don't care at all. Most
think it's legal."

The lawyer said there's been a gradual lessening of marijuana
penalties, with offences that would result in jail time 30 years ago
netting a $100 fine today.

Courts just can't get excited about pot prosecutions, he said, as
they are more preoccupied with violent and property crimes.

The activists favour legalization, but say marijuana must also be
regulated to ban additives and ensure quality and ought to be kept
out of the hands of tobacco companies.

"I do worry," Ander said, concerned that these companies would
glamorize pot and push it on children. "That would be disgusting."